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Monday, October 2, 2006

Akron Relay Race Report

It was a good time out there. There was a 80% chance of rain by race day, and it was sprinkling on us. We saw Sue, our first leg, off at the starting line. Rob and I were the 4th and 5th leg of the relay, so we had plenty of time to kill, so we were able to cheer Sue on when the course came back through town. We were then able to walk .8 of a mile over to the 3rd leg and make sure Sarah had made it in.A man was emptying his trash as we walked by. He asked us if there was a walk-athon going on. Rob told him, no a marathon, just down the block. The man asked Rob how long that was. Rob said "26.2 miles." The man looked very seriously at us, and replied "That is the same distance of the New York City Marathon." We managed to keep a straight face, and said, why, yes, it was, and had to walk on so we could giggle.I finally boarded the bus for my leg and it seemed to take forever! We finally get there, just as the first relay runners AND marathoners are hitting the 15K mark. I go for a short jog to warm up. It's raining now and I have my garbage bag on. I also have throwaway shorts on, and 3 T-shirts. I've been a bit cold, but not too bad.Being a relay runner is hard!!! Everyone wants to run. Especially in the cold rain!!! All that pent up energy!! I see another ultra runner and say hi to her as we wait. I actually saw a bunch of the local ultra folks out there at Akron. Finally I hear my number 5283 and I whip off my Thsirts to run in my blaze orange singlet and blue shorts. Sarah and I have a perfect handoff and I am off! Running a bit too fast, because I'm cold and soo want to run.My leg is a bit of a downhill, then it climbs out of the valley, about a two mile uphill. It seems like no time that I am almost down with my leg. My friend Wendy, catches me on the hill and passes me!! She's running the marathon, how embarassing for me. Wendy went on with another BQ and her best time of 3.35.I crest the hill and the temperature drops five degrees, we were protected from the wind in the valley. I sprint to the relay point, hit the chip mats and look for Rob. No Rob!!!! I scream "ROB" at the top of my lungs, and turn and see him running toward me--ooops, I was early for him!!! Hey, that was five seconds off his time, not mine! I ended up running a 29.37 I believe. I wanted to do it under 30 minutes so I was pleased.I turned in my chip, and then I ran the rest of the marathon on, a 10K. I needed more miles for the day. Although it was cold and raining, it was really fun to be "off the clock" and just running. Akron was my first marathon in 2004, and it was fun and different to be at the 20 mile marker and up and not be as tired. I ran into Lloyd another local ultra runner on the course. He was the 3.40 pacer. He said he wasn't doing that great, but hitting his miles. (Lloyd also ran YUT-C last weekend too...) For not feeling that great he was quickly past me!!I finished and it took awhile to find Shelly and Dan. In the meantime I ran into Elizabeth who was also running the relay-and she informed me that her team had won the mixed relay!! Rats, I guess that means my team did not!!We did great though, 34th in the mixed, and 67 overall out of 679 relay teams. That was alot of fun, and we had a great postrace party afterwards.

Very nice to meet you Kim at the Akron marathon. You ran well and within you goal time. That's great. And to top it off you ran another 10K. Good for you. I am always awe-struck of ultra runners adventures.